Cavs send Bynum, picks to Bulls for Deng

BOSTON HERALD
Associated Press

 
CHICAGO — The Cleveland Cavaliers traded Andrew Bynum in time — and got an All-Star in return.

The Cavaliers acquired Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls late Monday night for Bynum and three future draft picks, beating the deadline to guarantee his full contract for the season.

Along with Bynum, who had recently been suspended indefinitely by the Cavaliers for conduct detrimental to the team, the Cavaliers also sent the Bulls a first-round pick, two second-rounders, and gave Chicago the right to swap first-round choices in 2015 if the Cavs are not in the lottery.

Deng has been an All-Star the last two seasons. But he will be a free agent after this season, and with Bulls' championship aspirations gone following Derrick Rose's season-ending knee injury, there was no reason to hold onto him and risk losing him for nothing.

"We have great respect for Luol Deng, as a player and a person. He has been an incredible contributor to our team on the court, and he has also done great things in the community," Bulls general manager Gar Forman said in a statement. "On behalf of the entire Bulls organization, I want to thank Luol for his years in Chicago."

Deng is averaging a career-best 19 points this season and has been a member of the league's All-Defensive team. He's also a former winner of the NBA's sportsmanship award, and his professionalism will be welcomed by the Cavaliers, who quickly ran out of patience with Bynum.

"Luol reflects all that we are striving for in building our team," Cavs general manager Chris Grant said. "He's a tremendous defensive player that can impact the game on both ends of the court with a team-first mentality and is a high character leader."

Bynum signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Cavs in July, but only $6 million of the $12.5 million he was scheduled to earn this season was guaranteed if he was still on Cleveland's payroll by Jan. 7.

Now the Bulls can waive him and earn that salary relief — their release in announcing the deal never mentions anything about Bynum playing for them — and position themselves for the future.

Chicago gets a future first-round pick that had belonged to Sacramento, along with 2015 and 2016 second-round picks Cleveland had obtained from the Portland Trail Blazers.

"The moves made today will put us in a better position to make the entire roster stronger for the future and to compete for a championship," Forman said.

Bynum averaged 8.4 points in 24 games for the Cavaliers. He sat out all last season with Philadelphia because of knee surgery in his only season with the 76ers, but the way his contract was structured made him worth the risk for Cleveland.

But the Cavaliers suspended him on Dec. 28, excusing him from all team activities while they searched for a deal.

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Deng for a first and 2- seconds.

OK.

Chicago is in complete rebuild mode now ( if we weren't sure before). Will be interesting to see how Rose reacts.


I wonder who will try out Bynum for the rest of the year?

kdp59 wrote:Deng for a first and 2- seconds.

OK.

Chicago is in complete rebuild mode now ( if we weren't sure before). Will be interesting to see how Rose reacts.


I wonder who will try out Bynum for the rest of the year?

kdp,

Yeah, perhaps even including their coach. Thibs was pretty upset when they let Ron Adams go and he was on record as very much wanting Deng to stay.


bob


.

I feel badly for Thibs. Deng is a dependable difference-maker, and Bynam's future is a crap shoot.

Sam

Coach Thibs has had "philosophical differences" with Bulls management. In the offseason, the Bulls didn't renew the contract of Thibodeau's lead assistant, Ron Adams. Thibs really, really wanted Deng to stay. Even though he signed an extension in 2012, Thibs has to be one seriously unhappy camper.

Thibs got knee capped by the owners.

Chicago sees the writing on the wall, "Close but not enough." They've spent the past several years in futile contention, unable to get over the "South Beach Hump" and now the walls are caving in.

I'm willing to bet that behind closed doors they are already planning beyond Rose. His latest injury hangs a heavy cloud over their organization and the direction it's taking. Big changes could be in store. Boozer and Noah could be next if the Bulls are in fact looking to open up cap space.




KJ

Hah. Some ESPN talking head said that the Bulls could look to amnesty Boozer. Lol.



KJ

I thought this was a story from the Onion at first.

mrkleen - such a smart post of yours.
Actually, the Onion is my most trusted, reliable source of news. I always know that their writers are lying to me, unlike other journals.

I just sent a $5 donation to the Celtics with the proviso that they get Noah by any available or unavailable means.

Sam

I'll double that donation.

From the Miami Herald:

ON THE HEAT, ANDREW BYNUM, BAD KNEES AND THE FUTURE OF LEBRON JAMES: I'd say that the Cavaliers-Bulls trade this week has a ripple effect reaching all the way down to Miami, except it's more than a ripple. It's a potential tidal wave. Chicago dumps salary by trading Luol Deng to Cleveland for 1aa1bynumheatAndrew Bynum, then the Bulls immediately waive Bynum as expected in another money move. Ripple 1: Bynum (pictured as he might soon look) is now an available free agent, Miami needs a big man and Bynum wants to play for a contender. If that isn't a match made in heaven, it'll be close enough for Pat Riley. (Yes, yes, I am aware there supposedly is no great Heat interest in Bynum at the moment, but that could change). Ripple 2: If Cleveland aims to sign Deng long-term, which is the assumption, that would severely limit the Cavs' ability to make a run at luring back LeBron James after this season. Combined ripple: Miami gets immediate big-man help to help slay the Pacers and Roy Hibbert, and also sees its biggest obstacle to re-signing LeBron eliminate itself. That's a good week for the Heat. Bynum, of course, comes with disclaimers; why else would a 26-year-old former All-Star 7-footer be available in the first place? He has had attitude problems that helped chase him from Cleveland. He has had bad knees that shelved him all last season. So what? He's a calculated/big-upside gamble like Greg Oden (more bad knees) was, except Bynum is game-ready. Besides, Riley loves the challenge of taking other people's problems, wringing them through the Heat Culture and turning them out all shiny and new. It has worked quite fabulously with Michael Beasley. You next, Bynum?

Ok, so Bynum got cut by Chicago after the trade and is now with the Indianapolis Pacers (Larry!?  What the hell are you doing!?) but why was Bynum put on permanent suspension in Cleveland to begin with?  What was his "conduct detrimental to the team"?

Adrian W. now tells us and is talked about further by another writer on NBC Sports.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/02/12/reason-for-andrew-bynum-getting-kicked-out-of-practice-and-suspended-by-cavs-revealed-and-its-hilarious/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs


Reason for Andrew Bynum getting kicked out of practice and suspended by Cavs revealed, and it’s hilarious
Brett Pollakoff Feb 12, 2014, 11:14 AM EST



Andrew Bynum has done just fine for himself, having landed with a legitimate title contender in the Pacers after stops in Philadelphia and Cleveland that haven’t worked out, to say the very least.

Last season with the Sixers, Bynum never got healthy enough to be able to play in even a single game for the team that traded Andre Iguodala in hopes of landing the All-Star version of Bynum we saw in his final year in Los Angeles.

The Cavaliers took a chance on him with a low-risk, incentive-laden contract that could have been worth up to $25 million over two years, but things ended with a messy divorce that saw Bynum traded to the Bulls for Luol Deng, who is likely to leave at the end of this season as an unrestricted free agent.

The details surrounding Bynum’s dismissal in Cleveland have remained murky until now, with the team perhaps not wanting to disparage the big man’s reputation any further while they tried to deal him out of town. Now that he’s gone, however, we finally know exactly what behavior ultimately pushed the Cavaliers over the edge.

From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

"Only Bynum never made it to the early January guarantee date for his full $12.5 million salary in 2013-14, and self-destructed. He stopped trying on the floor, and became a disruptive presence in practices. Before Bynum was thrown out of his final practice and suspended, he was shooting the ball every time he touched it in a practice scrimmage, sources said – from whatever remote part of the court he had caught the ball".


Amazing, mainly because of the level of blatant disrespect doing something like this would show to both teammates and coaches.

Can you imagine?

Inbound pass to Bynum after a made basket, and instead of giving it back to the point guard to bring it up the floor, he launches an 80-footer. That’s obviously the most ridiculous scenario, but given the fact that it caused the team to cut ties with Bynum altogether, it’s probably not that much of a stretch.



bob



.

BobH,

Larry was probably thinking "Just another 7'0" body. Nothing more."



KJ

I think this was a smart move by Larry.
It's a somewhat low risk, high reward signing.
If Bynum acts up, it will only cost Indiana $1m if they cut Bynum.
If he get himself together and tries hard on the court, he could be a valuable back-up to Hibbert.

tardust wrote:It was as much to keep Bynum away from Miami as anything even though Larry denied it.  The Pacers didn't want Miami to pick up anyone that might help negate the Pacer  big men.

Truth be told, Miami had the opportunity to sign him when he first left Cleveland. I thought the Pacers waited the situation out and then made their move.



KJ

Seems as though Miami has gone through that low-risk, big upside process with Oden. So far, he's played in 8 games and is playing just a few minutes and scoring a couple of points per game.

Sam